Until only recently the only method you could use to work out the various important distances on the golf course was simply by educated guesses based on experience and line of sight, along with more than a bit of instinct. Great golfers of the past were able to intuitively guess how far they were from the hole or hazards and would know how hard to hit the ball and what club to use.
Over the past few years the new generation of golfers, and some of the older ones, have begun to use electronic gadgets to help them calculate these distances accurately, or even tell them exactly how far away they are! This will allow them to accurately decide what club to take, and it may even tell them if it is advanced enough! It has changed the way a lot of people play golf and it is no real surprise what with technology becoming such a large part of everyday life.
There are two main types of devices that are used -golf GPS systems, and golf rangefinders. But what is the difference between the two?
A golf GPS is very similar to the sort of satellite navigation device that you may have in your car. They are handheld and will either have course data stored on or you can buy software updates, and this data stores the exact GPS location of each landmark on the courses. When you call up the data, it calculates exactly how far you are from each based on your own GPS position on the course for total accuracy.
The laser rangefinder works in a different way. There is no GPS capability in there, just some lasers that you aim at a target such as the flag pole that sticks out of the hole or a bunker. Once these lasers hit the target they bounce back to the rangefinder and the distance is calculated accurately.
Both rangefinders and GPS units serve the same purpose...to help you improve your game!
Over the past few years the new generation of golfers, and some of the older ones, have begun to use electronic gadgets to help them calculate these distances accurately, or even tell them exactly how far away they are! This will allow them to accurately decide what club to take, and it may even tell them if it is advanced enough! It has changed the way a lot of people play golf and it is no real surprise what with technology becoming such a large part of everyday life.
There are two main types of devices that are used -golf GPS systems, and golf rangefinders. But what is the difference between the two?
A golf GPS is very similar to the sort of satellite navigation device that you may have in your car. They are handheld and will either have course data stored on or you can buy software updates, and this data stores the exact GPS location of each landmark on the courses. When you call up the data, it calculates exactly how far you are from each based on your own GPS position on the course for total accuracy.
The laser rangefinder works in a different way. There is no GPS capability in there, just some lasers that you aim at a target such as the flag pole that sticks out of the hole or a bunker. Once these lasers hit the target they bounce back to the rangefinder and the distance is calculated accurately.
Both rangefinders and GPS units serve the same purpose...to help you improve your game!
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You can buy a range of golf sat nav devices such as the Snooper S320 Shotsaver Europlus from The Sat Nav Company.